What Modern Warfare II Did WRONG! | (Final Review Part 2)

[@Omerta989]

Gotta love the length difference from the “what it did good” video vs “what it did bad video” lol

[@Cheechers]

For reference, Vanguard was around 11 minutes for the “what it did good” and 25 minutes for the “what it did bad”. MW19 was 15 minutes for “what it did good”, and 48 minutes for “what it did bad” lol. Obviously the negatives take longer to explain but wooof lmao

[@starboyjedi13]

Lol. And it's all well deserved.🤣

[@Latinblood59]

That was the first thing I noticed! Lmao 🤣

[@bobthebuilder9509]

@@CheechersCold War’s bad part was only 25 minutes too lol. Love how stubborn IW always is!

[@Punisher_3022]

Yeah it’s great but that’s COD for you 😂

[@uxo9992]

I love how everyone in part one said "Part 2 better be a 40+ minute video" and Ace delivered 😂

[@Punisher_3022]

It’s was gonna be over 40 minutes regardless 😂

[@JustSendMeLocationPlease]

I feel like Ace is a humble guy and wants to justify every bad thing about the game but either way, the bad still outweigh the good with this game.

[@daniguess]

My favorite example of terrible communication happened over the weird riot shield nerf. The huge complaint over shields is with the Overkill perk, the way it covers your back with no penalty. So what is IWs response? Nerfing the shield hard for those using it as intended.

[@scottjs5207]

It honestly made shields way harder to deal with too!! They moved too fast after the fact and it made outsmarting with your gun alone way less successful than it used to be.

[@Seoul_Soldier]

All they had to do was remove Riot Shields from the Overkill perk.

[@ravenevans3136]

blame truth once gave his explanation, and he was right, this game is made by AI, it showed an increasing amount of usage for the riot shield, so this means its OP, let's nerf it.

[@Meravokas]

Honestly while annoying on enemies because from behind you have to spray their legs. It was even worse having teammates with it. Because THEIR riot shields blocked your rounds as much as the opponents I've gotten killed god knows how many times because I wasn't able to shoot through a teammate either as they died, or saving them in the process because both of us were hitting him. But all my bullets from my angle were instead being blocked while my opponent had a clearer shot on me.

[@damiangarcia1997]

@@Meravokasholy fucking shit, thank god you pointed this out. This was by far the most annoying thing ever especially when quick scoping on small maps. You’d have the line of sight ready only for the teammate using a riot shield in the back because “iM tO0 afRaID oF geTTing Shot iN th3 bAck aNd neEd pr0tEctIon” get in the way and block my shot. I blame how unfair it is that having a riot shield on your back can still access you full protection no matter what

[@DevlVergil]

Since you mentioned it, one thing I never understood is why they'd limit custom perks and Gear loadouts. Honestly, even 10 custom loadouts wasn't enough for me.

[@shquankinket8068]

It could possibly be a memory issue. It’s the same reason games will limit inventory and vault space. With every player you connect with the game has to load everything they’ve saved to that character so in a match the game is loading about 100 loadouts I can only assume that this can cause problems. Also mw2 is kinda held together with spaghetti code so any extra confusion for the engine just isn’t good for it

[@bazooka420]

@@shquankinket8068i don’t think the PS5 has more memory than my PC

[@MerrStudio]

One loadout shouldnt weigh more than a KB

[@acx2035]

@@bazooka420 The loadouts are tied to your account, not console or platform. So it is saved on the server end. For them to make more loadouts for each player would require more from their end, not ours.

[@bazooka420]

@@acx2035 so let me store them, or some, on my PC. They could have like 5-10 that are synced, and then give you the option to make more which aren’t

[@kylemurphy4600]

I think the worst and most unforgivable part of all the bugs you mentioned that never got fixed, was how quickly they’d fix things like camos being too bright or the store not working. Those were updates that came through asap. But then there’s game breaking bugs they can’t fix but they’re asking for $20 for Nicki Manaj and Skeletor. Those make it to the game no problem. While the gameplay doesn’t even matter at all

[@CDL_Gaming]

That's where the development focus is. The main focus going forward will always be on the store front. All they have to do is put out a game that's functionally playable and as long as there aren't any major exploits or game breaking bugs, there's no point in fixing it. Something goes wrong in the store that effects how much money they could be making, though? Fix that immediately! Protect the profits at all cost!

[@youtubedeletedmynamewhybother]

They were also happy to patch out AFK farming in warzone ASAP. Cant have players achieving BP completion organically. They Need to buy skips.

[@hunterlambert6375]

@@CDL_Gamingthe craziest showing of their focus on the store front is the mw3 mp trailer, where we’re literally showing off and advertising future ways to spend money on the game

[@dentoncrimescene]

It's unbelievable that there's still a broken shottie in the game as far as I know and that's been weeks.

[@catholicguy1073]

That’s because you bought the game and gave them money. All the gravy was in in store purchase not fixing bugs

[@Poohtheweenie]

Another thing they left out on launch was the combat record, made no sense why they couldn’t include it like every COD before it

[@David_1789]

Don’t forget that there wasn’t a hardcore mode at launch. They waited, came out with “tier 1” mode, then came out with hardcore several weeks from launch.

[@lordprettyflackoskillz3575]

@@David_1789 the game was already basically a hardcore mode when you could 3 shot with ARs and SMGs

[@drshishkebab]

The combat record isn’t as detailed anymore either, i remember it would tell you how many kills and uses the kill streaks got you but it doesn’t. Just take a look at the combat record from bo1 and this one lol, it’s so bad.

[@Rustydude2030]

how about there is no way to see other players combat record like you used to be able to in older CODs...

[@Austin-l1j]

@@Rustydude2030they do that because they don’t want you to see other people’s stuff so people couldn’t use that as evidence for SBMM. It would add more fuel to the fire.

[@benroderick9354]

Thank you Ace for actually offering solutions or ways to improve on the features Call of Duty does wrong instead of just complaining about the problems

[@TheCasual101]

XclusiveAce is the GOAT unlike some people *Cough* Blametruth *Cough*

[@cgnomazoid]

I think he's the only creator who does this anymore... Love to see it!

[@JagsP95]

​@@cgnomazoidEspresso, JGod, Drift0r and many more all express the same feedback thats always ignored anyway

[@KirovAirship]

​@@TheCasual101Yup.The thing is Ace actually cares about COD.

[@Aaronxxi]

Too bad IW wont listen

[@MBDTFTV]

You can really hear the frustration in Ace’s voice as the video progresses. This game is such a fall from grace for IW.

[@DChainZ_YT]

IW has been the worst COD dev since at least Ghosts. It's not a fall from grace, it's the usual standard for them.

[@bradenmchenry995]

@@DChainZ_YThis favorite call of duty is an infinity ward game from 2016

[@MBDTFTV]

@@DChainZ_YT hahah completely fair point!

[@MBDTFTV]

@@bradenmchenry995 Treyarch has been my favourite studio for many years, not sure what you’re going on about. I should’ve been more clear but I more so meant that it was a fall from grace from even the casual cod player’s perspective. I realize the core community has disliked IW for quite some time now but it’s a different story when even the casuals start to dislike them.

[@Seoul_Soldier]

@@MBDTFTV Treyarch is our only hope at this point. IW is worse than Sledgehammer in my opinion. Advanced Warfare was better than this shit.

[@domagojspanja9985]

The amount of Infinity Wards arrogance and stubbornness was astonishing.

[@adamolig3865]

It's not astonishing at all because people keep buying their junk no matter how crappy they make it. Why would they ever change?!?!?!

[@bobdarrick2628]

@@adamolig3865despite the flaws, the game wasn’t bad overall

[@adamolig3865]

@bobdarrick2628 these latest COD releases are like the Ford Pinto of the video game industry. I'm sure some people thought the Pinto wasn't that bad a car, just got a bad rap. But then there are people who knew that Ford made better cars than the Pinto before, and the Pinto was bad compared to the rest of the cars on the market. My hope is that like Ford, this company can actually get back to making good stuff out of the box, not after 3-4 months of updates and patches, and stop trying to shine a turd and convince their customers it doesn't smell like poo

[@bobdarrick2628]

@@adamolig3865 interesting. Wait r u asking for more content at launch with less bugs or what do u mean exactly?

[@adamolig3865]

@bobdarrick2628 you are on the right track. They said at some pt MWII would be a 2yr release. That could have given them time to develop MWIII modes of campaign, MP, Warzone, DMZombies, co-op, etc; all the new weapons, with ridiculous numbers of attachments, all the movement mechanics changes, spawn logic, game stat tracking, and then there's (worthless, in my opinion) skins and blueprints. Instead they choose to release MWIII one year after MWII, which means their dev workers don't have time/ resources to get all those work tasks done correctly. Almost all those topics I listed are getting negative reviews or comments from pro reviewers and youtubers plus vast majority of their viewers. Either do them all in a longer development time, or do a few of them in the shorter time. Or you get poor quality product where almost nothing seems to work the way customers want it. And they STILL had the nerve to charge full price of a brand new game of $70-100

[@dragonborndariousking]

Before disbanding lobbies I made several friends that have stuck with me for over a decade. Now because the lobby disbands we don't get to grow either as a community or a person.

[@John-hi6kl]

This!! I miss lobbies you play with for hours. So much fun

[@courier8365]

facts

[@the_lifeoftimbo]

The only times people ever talked were at the end of the game and it would only last 10 seconds

[@dylonvr9595]

“Or a person”😂😂😂😂

[@mre8ballgaming842]

That and they're banning ppl for chat so hardly anyone wants to chat

[@evancoleman8910]

I feel like I could feel the anger in your voice when talking about the Dead Silence ringing noise lol. That decision felt like such a slap in the face to all players. You put a mechanic in the game that silences your steps but then immediately contradict it by ringing a loud bell that can be heard? It's honestly always baffled me they put that in the game at all.

[@raxjax8787]

Perk charging, explosive slow down, cant cancel reload, SBMM, Shadow bans, and too many animations are the most inferiating thing of mw2 this year.

[@WellCookedPotatoes]

Where were there too many animations? I don't remember noticing any additional animations aside from the few new killstreak animations

[@Thouxanbanquincy]

@@WellCookedPotatoeskillstreak animations were horrible, Ive been killed countless times just because I was trying to call in a UAV. The mantling animations are pretty bad too, i think all the other animations are alright for the most part

[@Twiizzy0]

Finally someone talks about the client sides smoke! I've died so many times because theres smoke on my screen but for the enemy theres nothing and can kill me.

[@rk13567]

Infinity Ward gonna come after you for this one, they're allergic to feedback

[@ktgray2884]

I said once before... MW2 is my last Infinity Ward purchase. After how they treated us, I will never trust them again. I most definitely will be skipping their next game

[@bushmonster1702]

Yes they really passed me off with this crap game and their arrogance.

[@brizzle711]

lol sure

[@LD-sx9pr]

MW19 was my last IW game, and back then I saw their bullshit and stopped supporting any game they developed, skipping this game too MWIII was ironically a head turner with SHG at the helm Embarrassing IW in all regards

[@publicsafetyhazard]

Longshot challenges were why I stopped the camo grind. They should only be on shotguns and marksman/sniper rifles. I wouldn't have minded making the platinum challenge something like 3 kills within 10 seconds.

[@bbobson2k]

Although I never go through the full grind to the mastery camo I'll generally grind 4 classes to diamond aka platinum in MW2. Didn't even attempt to do so in MW2 vs just getting Platinum on a few favorite weapons in each class.

[@WellCookedPotatoes]

It's literally they biggest cause of camping in cod. Camping would die down so much if that challenge was removed

[@korzhik3]

What MW2 did right - 13 mins What MW2 did wrong - 41 mins Ouch 🌚

[@Punisher_3022]

That’s COD for you 😂

[@2023PerfectDark]

21:17 And the silence from IW with the bug is to a point where treyarch has to come out and ask him what he thinks the issue is so they can fix it or at least know how to fix it. From what it sounds like even treyarch doesn't know how to it trying to look into it

[@MarkOfAHero]

Perfect thumbnail using the Ghost meme 😂 absolutely tippable Ace

[@starboyjedi13]

The perk system in MW2 falls for the classic "if it ain't broke don't fix it" trap. It has to be the worst thing in the game just after the spawn system. Those two factors completely ruined the flow of the game. I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they tinkered with those mechanics.🤦‍♂🤦‍♂

[@danjjjatest]

Its because IW knows certain perks are better than others. Thats why in CoD Ghost they made perks like Ghost cost more points. This time in MW2 they did it with a cool-down.

[@starboyjedi13]

@@danjjjatest yeah and it's still a horrible idea.

[@danjjjatest]

@@starboyjedi13 Yea having to wait for perks before you can play the way you want was Intrusive.

[@starboyjedi13]

@@danjjjatest heavily.

[@AlexP-dz7ew]

Killing aggressive play styles made me put the game down and has turned me off of cod all together That and the fact that they monetize a YEARLY RELEASING $70 game like it is FTP is predatory af. Which is exceptionally scummy considering the game was half baked for 50% of the first year

[@marenas32]

The footsteps audio was horrible, I’ll never forget one of the DEVS saying “hunting by footstep” I knew from that moment on what kind of game MW2 was gonna be.

[@snoopcodd]

Been waiting all year for this one

[@MattIceburg]

Another admittedly somewhat small issue I had was removing all third party website stat tracking access.

[@Chrissy717]

They did what. Holy shit.

[@DatGuyWhoPlays]

My biggest anger inducing thing in this game, the flashbang/stun spam and the uselessness of the Battle Hardened perk

[@bushmonster1702]

I dropped the game when season 2 dropped and they still hadn’t fixed that. It was also at that point I vowed to never buy an IW game again. They are trash.

[@danjjjatest]

The backlash for season 2 was overblown by media. WW2 only launched with 10 maps and everything else was paid DLC. Yet MW2 got raged on for having 12 maps? Free maps are a privilege, it’s not owed to us.

[@justinhall430]

@@danjjjatesthey bud the only reason the maps are free is because they strip it from the base game and give us less than what we were getting 6-10 years ago. But keep suckin em off and theyll keep taking your money

[@danjjjatest]

​@@justinhall430 Free maps are better instead of paying $15 scam. Especially when the maps could suck. Most people don’t even buy DLC for that reason and I’m sure you didn’t either, so cool your jets bro 😎

[@jaredfernandez1990]

1. Providing solutions instead of just saying “game is bad” is so refreshing to see. 2. I think it’s my least fav cod of all time. I didn’t personally like 2019 that much, but all my friends liked it so we’d play together a TON and I like that experience over the game being “good”

[@Padi688]

I like that in your video you show the gameplay from the worst maps in the game, fits the video

[@maserati4000]

One of the big drawback for me was the 1 for 1 limitations on ranked mode. I understand that you want to recreate the competition of the cdl, that’s not what I’m complaining about. It’s more about being too stringent when what we aren’t allowed to use in what is still a public mode. For example, even when the ranked season started I was using the kastov 762 over the tac-56 or vasnev. I almost never saw that in ranked and for good reason too because of the recoil. However it was super fun for me to use and it was a fun off-meta build to use until it got GAd in the CDL. I was pretty disappointed in that because I think that even in a competitive setting there should be enough options that can provide a variety of play styles. It made ranked feel very 1 dimensional, especially with no new maps added to the rotation later on.

[@JoselitoBurrito]

With SBMM: I know they're not gonna change anything but it'd feel rewarding to have it as a compliment. After 3 games of good performance (so you get your warm-up in and had your fun) the game would ask you to enter 'High Stakes' where it's basically normal SBMM but with a 10% XP boost or something like that so you feel proud of being good instead of punished. If you don't want it because you're going for a nuke, then have a little icon showing you opted out as a 'shame' if you get one like that, and an icon showing when you got in (as in that's the real nuke challenge for anyone that uploads them to Social Media). In a rewarding system, players will play the way you want them to play but feeling good about themselves, instead of pure forced inconveniences.

[@nachi6808]

I like this idea

[@BCBtheBeastlyBeast]

I like your idea. Personally, I just want to know what the actual skill rating of the people I'm destroying despite the game throwing constant "sweats" at me (even sweats are no match for one-shot weapons when you can anticipate how sweats play). Maybe they don't let you see the ratings because people would use it as trash-talk ammunition? idk.

[@MrFox101]

Or just remove sbmm? 😂

[@dartagnancurt4392]

That’s genius bruh

[@AletuCoD]

That would just confirm SBMM and they've never done it so this would never happen. They have never acknowledged the use of SBMM even though its incredibly obvious at this point.

[@jacobmiller6916]

WOOOOOOO 41 MIN VIDEO OF WHAT THE GAME DID WRONG! LETS GOOO! Edit:I absolutely agree with lack of support specifically lack of feedback. I felt we were ignored for a whole year and some of the bugs that were game breaking definitely took way to long to fix, pretty sure that the UAV bug is still in the game lol so that's great what a way to say goodbye to this game. Had great potential but the bugs and other issues held this back by a long shot

[@d8l835]

You need to keep this energy all year long. All of you respected cod youtubers need to. They dont listen to us, you guys are the only ones they talk to. The only fans they do anything for are the very small %of players who are whales and have no problem spending half the price of the game on a single bundle, multiple times a month. The other 99% of us are ignored and are clearly fed up with how awful this franchise has become. If they kill this franchise, these whales will have nobody to play with and it wont matter if they buy bundles for 1000$ let alone 30$ because NOBODY will be playing. You cant cater the game to these peope and these people only, seriously this has gone on way to long and is absolutely ridiculous

[@igreyfox9793]

Fun fact about Infected Ace, there was only 5 loadouts set for Infected; The pump action, the AK, the Lynx with a m10 secondary, a P90, and a P890 with fists. The playlist for it back then got bugged and only allowed for the shotgun loadout to be used, and when the update for the rest of the loadouts came out THAT WAS THE ONLY UPDATE INFECTED EVER GOT. With how much more gunsmitch was able to do in this game compared to MW19 i was really excited for what IW was going to do with them like they did with some of the blueprint/randomized weapons they did in MW19 infected, but uh....we know how well that ended up. And Also Ground War Reinfected, a 100% quality gamemode from MW19 now turned kinda barebones since none of the maps really played well on them along with no random care package drops to spice things up. Man IW really broke my heart with Infected...

[@Alreezy]

I was asking myself this week how long the "What MWII did wrong" video would be. Needless to say, it's exactly the length I expected and I absolutely needed to say that.

[@LateNightHalo]

12:32 TBH I’d rather have folks jump shotting around corners like classic cod than constantly sliding everywhere. Sliding it so boring, it’s annoying how Cod became a game where every single engagement begins with players on the floor sliding into an enemies legs

[@RaNd0Mk1D8o3I]

Grab your popcorn, peoples. Xclusive Ace's second longest video since MW0 (2019) lol

[@Incognigro.]

That’s actually hilarious though. There were SO many things they did wrong in that game…. And a lot of those issues either returned, got worse, or transformed in a way that wasn’t that beneficial. Edit: sad/ironic hilarious, I don’t think anyone’s really laughing…. (Except Activision).

[@animalpowerca]

Imagine if ace was in charge of doing a COD game, that would be glorious

[@TheBakedPug2]

Two things I'm surprised you didn't mention were the OG MWII maps and the rumored two-year life cycle for this game. Back when this game was coming out, it was rumored that this game would have a two-year life cycle. Knowing (or believing foolishly, I guess) that this game would be supported for two years was a huge selling point for me personally and was a big part of why I decided to buy it. I thought, not only will I have two whole years to grind out camos, unlocks, and seasonal content, but I would not have to pay for a whole new game after 12 months in order to play the newest version of COD that most other players would be concurrently playing, greatly increasing the value proposition of a $70 game. But no, they decided to just continue the cycle and release MWIII a year later. Another huge reason I even bought the game was that I (again foolishly) believed that they would bring the original MWII maps to this game. I knew they wouldn't be there at launch, but I was convinced that they would add them later as seasonal content. But no, they decided to launch MWIII with all the OG maps instead, so now I have to buy that game too to get that nostalgic experience that I was really looking forward to. It's just so nonsensical, manipulative, and stupid, and it really puts me off buying MWIII, even though I probably will. It's just so endlessly frustrating that every COD game, while it seems to improve on the last game in some areas, is also invariably marred by some sort of misstep or step backwards in other areas. MWIII is a perfect example, they fixed the movement to be more in line with what players want, but then they completely screw the pooch on the spawns. Year after year, I end up just yelling into an abyss "Why? Why did you do this? This problem was already fixed back in 2004 when Halo 2 came out," only for that issue to be fixed in the next one along with a slew of new problems. COD has become like a cable/internet provider; everyone hates them for their exploitative and generally shitty business and design practices, but they are able to stay in business because people need what they provide. Now, it's not like people NEED to play the newest COD as soon as it comes out, but no one WANTS to play last year's COD because: none of your friends will be playing it, there won't be any new content or bug fixes for it, and generally no one will care about it or talk about it because everyone has just moved on at that point (you won't see any videos from Ace or any other creator making content about it). This is also why people look at Xdefiant as a "COD killer" because people are just craving to be freed from these constant annoyances and manipulative practices, but they can't do that because no one really tries to compete directly with COD, so there really aren't any viable alternatives.

[@roar104]

there's no way there wasn't going to be a big paid DLC for year 2 even if it was a 2 year game. Bless your naivety and willingness to trust rumors

[@cokeweasel1064]

So you write this giant paragraph of complaints which are justified. Then you go on to say that you'll probably buy it anyway... This is exactly why it will never change

[@toughluck8012]

It 100% is the community's fault for putting too much weight and Reliance on RUMORS. Nowhere once did anyone from IW or Activision ever say that it was gonna be 2 years. Idiots listened to social media and then got angry and reviewed bombed the game and acted like complete moronic children because they did the exact same thing they've been doing for the last 20 years that no one complained about before. Smfh

[@brizzle711]

Kinda your fault for believing in a rumor.

[@markjones5672]

This is very much a you problem. "I believed a rumour then ended up disappointed for believing a rumour".

[@weirdeurasianboy8091]

Netcode definitely. For all their shortcomings, one thing Infinity Ward consistently excelled in was their networking. Thanks to EOMM (courtesy of Demonware btw, very fitting name😅) it sacrifices connection quality to matchmake you with your clones.

[@ByakurenEnjoyer]

MX Guardian users are not my clones, I would never use that gun in my whole life because I wanna respect my enemy

[@DekuSkrub2129]

Except that hipfire LMGs are not clones of Iredescent meta slaves

[@edwardbersin3100]

Don't forget it puts guys that just bought the game as your teammates also.

[@L3XisLIVE]

How does one man with a KZbin channel have more insight into how to design a great CoD game than multiple AAA studios with millions of dollars in funding? Great video.

[@Bruhgod7]

Cause he actually has passion and cares about the franchise

[@L3XisLIVE]

@@Bruhgod7 agreed. Mine was a rhetorical question of course :)

[@oOTheMastaOo240]

One of the only big COD KZbinrs that aren't complete sellouts. Appreciate you man

[@korhanM]

i feel like everything they done with this game was just to slow the player down. movement is one thing, but even the perk system is made to slow you down... having to wait to earn fast hands and quick fix for example, 2 perks that are more suited to players who move around more. Explosive damage slow down, staged reloads...

[@DoktorSammich]

The shadow ban looping has ruined my experience to the point where I simply stopped playing. Couldn’t play with Ace on stream, couldn’t play solo, couldn’t play without catching reports and getting shadow banned within (in many cases) a single game of being cleared of the last one.

[@cj_unhinged7742]

The biggest CON is called Infinity Ward. Great vid Ace

[@Nate_the_Nobody]

I hate how easy it is to spam the report system the most 10 shadow bans through my run might not seem like a lot, but, at minimum, that was an entire month spent "shadow banned" That also leads me to worry about "doing too good" in other matches because I don't want to catch more account reviews that lock me out of normal lobbies Set the report system to only allow ONE report per match per person.

[@CammyBouse]

My biggest gripes with this game are/were SBMM/EOMM being cranked to 1 million in public matches, particle effects and muzzle flash, body blocking, loud footsteps, people being rewarded for camping or sound whoring, relentless flashbangs when battle hardened doesn't counter it hard enough, really cheesy things like shock sticks and tear gas having no counter as well, shotguns being OP and adding in full auto and semi auto shotguns and the biggest thing for me was the sluggish and restricting movement.

[@tylerfischer2523]

Appreciate how In-depth you go with all of your topics. And absolutely love the passion and energy you put into this!

[@TeamMutuallyAssuredDestruction]

Here are mine bc i like doing this Negative: -There was way too much smoke and visual recoil when firing your weapon. -SBMM -No hardcore modes or combat record on launch is absolutely disgraceful. People like to give Vanguard grief but at least Sledgehammer had those features at launch -The footstep audio was too loud. People could hear you coming from a mile away -No dead silence as a perk again. It was even worse than MW19, since there’s an audio cue whenever you use the field upgrade. -No traditional minimap -The squad-based spawns were extremely frustrating. There were certain maps that made spawn trapping pretty easy, like the fountain area on Al Bagra Fortress -The new perk system didn’t add any meaningful change to gameplay. If they wanted us to earn perks, then we should’ve gotten the specialist bonus. -The perk structure was awful. There’s no tradeoff to running overkill, since other important perks like high alert and resupply were in other tiers so you could become a supersoldier without any drawbacks.This was especially bad in Warzone. -The UI was extremely confusing with too many mobile-like menus to scroll through. They got a little better over time but that’s not saying much. -Movement was extremely clunky and actively punished aggressive players. Specifically, the ADS while jumping penalty was annoying. -Santa Sena Border Crossing is the worst map in CoD history. -The gunsmith was a major step down from MW19. Most of the attachments had the same pros and cons and the lack of stats didn’t help. As much as I love sites like TrueGameData it sucks that we have to use external means to figure out what exactly each attachment does. -I feel like there’s SOME way a system for unlocking attachments by using different weapons could work but I think it’s way too complicated based on the way MWII did it, especially for casual players. -Stun effect after getting hit by a nearby explosion -Some of the camo challenges were extremely dumb. “Get 20 mounted kills with a shotgun” and “get 30 prone kills with an SMG” don’t exactly feel like a challenge. They just make you look like an idiot and slow down your gameplay. -Blackcell should not exist. I’m already not a fan of the Battle Pass model (especially for paid games) but having microtransactions for microtransactions feels incredibly scummy. I know I’m not forced to buy it but damn, was it really necessary? -On a similar note, I didn’t like how certain cosmetic bundles included benefits for DMZ. I’ve never really tried DMZ so it’s possible that they aren’t that bad, but I think it’s an incredibly slippery slope in regards to “pay to win” content. -They didn’t need to buff aim assist. It was already incredibly strong to begin with (this is coming from a controller player btw). It’s even weirder doing this in a game that has slow and clunky movement to begin with. -I don’t know if it was a Warzone specific problem but shadowbanning was out of control. I knew a number of people who got shadowbanned just for just having one good game or one angry player reporting them. I would argue this is most likely a result of aim assist getting buffed. -No post launch LMGs was an extremely weird choice. Because I’m bored and love rambling about CoD I wanted to comment on two things that some people consider negatives -I don’t really care if they use fake names for iconic weapons. Is it a little weird? Yeah. Does this affect anything related to gameplay? No. I can just call it by their normal name if I want to if it’s recognizable enough to everyone else I’m playing with. -Apparently there are people upset that this was supposed to be a two-year game but it ended up not happening. I took those rumors with a grain of salt since they didn’t come from any official source and just from leakers. You could make the argument that Infinity Ward should’ve released a public statement saying the rumors are false, but at the same time you shouldn’t believe something just because a leaker posts about it.

[@djabouty47]

Some things I'd say: "Santa Sena Border Crossing is the worst map in CoD history." I'd say it's one of the worst. The worst map in cod history is Euphrates Bridge in MW2019, and it's undisputed. Shit is so garbage it got removed from almost every playlist and everyone forgot about it. "They didn't need to buff aim assist. It was already incredibly strong to begin with (this is coming from a controller player btw). It's even weirder doing this in a game that has slow and clunky movement to begin with." Aim assist wasn't buffed. It is the exact same as it was in MW2019 (Source: Hecksmith). It's only feels better cuz of the slower movement.

[@TeamMutuallyAssuredDestruction]

@@djabouty47if that’s the case regarding aim assist, I stand corrected

[@corndogmaster12345]

I actually really like the staged reloads. It brought me to me back to “Remember switching to your pistol is faster than reloading”. I’d ALWAYS run the quick draw attachment on my pistols and it saved my life countless times while reloading. Also I think it gives more counter play to the knife being the de facto secondary for try hards. It give a valuable trade off that we didn’t have before. Either run faster or be able to defend yourself when you run out of ammo.

[@malcum17]

This is ace's most in depth review yet.

[@IcyBlaze616]

I know MW2019 had a lot of fans, and I liked it too, but to your point that that IW is no longer the "Golden Studio", I'm surprised there were still people that thought that after Ghosts.

[@stevelongley6989]

I agree with all of that, what killed it for me was the way they implemented private match. The game would disconnect from the server at the end of the game meaning everyone would have to reconnect again. There was no way to save custom games and settings and the time to connect to a server again was just extremely frustrating. We played private as there used to be about 10 of us. Worst implementation of private ever!

[@marcusduck]

over 40 mins of what MWII did wrong... I love it. There should be a part 3 - What MWII Did HORRIBLY Wrong! | (Final Review Part 3)

[@cheeseherbspsychedelicston2288]

So is it only for me that when I change the charged perks in the class during a match - nothing happens? And it's not like it happens sometimes - it's totally bugged since the premiere and nobody talks about it.

[@Latinblood59]

You mean during a match? That happens to me too, I have to select it as soon as I spawn each time.

[@HeartlessKnight33]

The reporting system is extremely broken not just shadow ban but voice bans for no reason why we have this like whyyyyy it rated m like seriously

[@TTRider88]

Always love your constructive criticism, Ace. It's about time the Devs listened!! On the whole I enjoyed MW II. Like you I thought the spawn system was a cluster**k. I got fed up of being screwed as soon as I spawned so often. I am a hardcore player and for me MW II hardcore was almost like playing core! I got so many hitmarkers it was unreal, so unlike previous hardcore I've played.

[@TheDuffman1812]

For real! I shouldn’t be getting 3 hitmarkers on anyone when they’re not even behind cover! Like I know for a fact that my gun is definitely doing more than 10dmg so why am I getting three hit markers!? Or better yet why TF am I getting hit markers to the head?! Hardcore on MWII is a joke and I stopped playing entirely because of everything they did to ruin this years installment.

[@thomassimmons1306]

4-6 months for seemingly easy fixes means there’s probably a huge bureaucratic wall at IW/activision to review if even the smallest of changes will effect their profit model. It’s sad. I would suspect we’re in for much of the same regarding any overwhelming community feedback for MW3.

[@chippewaguy4193]

It’s almost like COD invites all the pro’s and KZbin cod players to these events to get feed back on them to purposely do the opposite of what you guys say. They get all you guys in a room and say to themselves “how can we bring their skill level down to that average COD players level.” They want to flatten the skill gap as much as possible even if it kills the game for the top 20%.

[@BCBtheBeastlyBeast]

It's actually genius, from a business perspective. Just sucks for the KZbinrs and "no-lifers".

[@Kluck0816]

​@@BCBtheBeastlyBeastor the people with actual interest!

[@Kluck0816]

​@@BCBtheBeastlyBeastguess I know what level you are on.😅

[@BCBtheBeastlyBeast]

@@Kluck0816 Top of the scoreboard almost every game. Was that your guess?

[@Ice43Man]

@@BCBtheBeastlyBeastit’s actually not because it ruins the experience for above average casual players too

[@JustSendMeLocationPlease]

Tbh I think they forced us to charge perks as a way to “nerf” good players and limit us. Every year it gets harder to pub stomp.

[@Mapes.]

31:41 This bug was indeed fixed, however as you stated, it took them WAY too long to fix. It wasn't until iirc Season 3 Reloaded, or Season 4 that they actually full on fixed this. Now it accurately displays what perks the enemy is running.

[@RycoonGalloy]

does it show the charge amount though?

[@alejonicolaslignac9142]

Modern Warfare II was the first COD I've ever bought with which I felt like I've actually wasted my money. Even with other COD's that I despised, like MW19 and Vanguard, I still felt like I got at least some enjoyment out of them, or certain gamemodes within them that I liked. I genuinely can't think of a single gamemode within MWII that I've actually enjoyed playing. This game was so bad for me that it actually killed my passion to play COD, which is something that has never happened to me before with any other entry. I've played every single COD game religiously since MW2 2009, and I have never regretted paying full price and playing any of them, up until this game. I really hope the next Infinity Ward game is very, very far away.

[@blackicezero23]

You just knew this was going to be a LONG video 😂

[@Phil_Official]

Monetization, SBMM, Disbanding Lobbies ... I´m shivering even thinking about this game

[@John-hi6kl]

I absolutely despise disbanding lobbies! I had so much fun staying in a lobby for hours trash talking, making friends. It’s just not the same without it. There really is no sense of community

[@Geo-vw9oz]

I don't think any video series of this format will ever result in more positive than negative. The reason for this is that the negatives are things we complain about and the positives we take for granted and forget to mention. Look at the past 4 cods exclusive ace reviewed. Just an observation for those who question the difference in duration between both videos.

[@FEWGEE1]

I agree with pretty much everything you said in both videos. MW2 could have been the best COD ever, but I found it nothing but frustrating most of the time. I have such a love/hate relationship with Infinity Ward.

[@reeseatkinson5796]

What sets ace apart from the rest is if he doesn’t like something he goes into great detail explaining why and offers solutions to fix the problem

[@ryanbolson23]

30:20 for me it’s the end of game screens. I have to say yes to like 3 screens and a battle pass progression to be able to be back to the lobby to check skin progression or tuning classes before the next game. Couple that with the near instant queue it means that realistically if someone in the group wants to change something we need to all leave queue to accommodate. It should’ve been all displayed on 1 screen. There’s no reason to have everything in like 4 different affirm screens

[@DannyFenton217]

Couldn't have said it better myself. And it feels like a big slap in the face when bugs are still persistent at the end of its lifecycle. Makes it feel like they really don't care to improve the game. Modern Warfare 2 will go down in history as everything they could've done but didn't.

[@SST1447]

The long shots are what killed it for me. I 100% agree with you on how they should be there to some extent but what they required here was insane and I gave up halfway through bc I was tired of being forced to play like that. And I’m one that enjoys the grind of making me do something outside the norm.

[@xenondestiny]

I got the game 2 months ago and started going for it last week, sbmm makes this challenge so cringe because every 4th game is a 200+ ping lobby, like I'm just trying to get longshots...

[@SleepyjoeOG]

Play ground war , you’ll be surprised how many Longshots you get normally in ground war since how big the maps are

[@Philosopheraptor]

Hardcore Domination + Holotherm sight + Agent grip underbarrel were mandatory attachments for me. Also choose the right map. Back out of the search if it gives you something silly like a small map@@xenondestiny Choose attachments and tune for the tightest recoil and aiming stability possible. ADS, STFS, AWS, hipfire accuracy/recoil all don't matter.

[@will_9910]

You're in a better position if you do them now. Due to how dreadful it was, I also stopped doing the challenges (only had 1 platinum gun), but I picked it back up around late August and finished entering early September and that was just casually. You can finish it faster if you no life it. The maps have gotten better for long shots and with the dlc guns adding more fluff to the long shot challenges, it becomes more of a breeze. Still long and exhausting, but less of a pain in the ass as compared to the early stages of the game. Though with that being said. When I picked it back up around August, I was also blessed with hardcore shipment. Got all my pistols, shotguns, and half of my smgs platinum on there in 2-3 days.

[@will_9910]

@@SleepyjoeOG Yes, but ground war can be half in half because other players are as well sitting back for their longshot challenges, it becomes a game of peek a boo. I had way better and faster progress playing on hardcore Strike, Taraq, Alboran, Punta Mar, Al Bagra Fortress, and especially Vondel. These maps have blessed me with at times 12-14 longshots in a game.

[@GibDoggieDolla]

This is one of my favorite KZbin videos made this year. Great video, Ace.

[@THEWAVVYY4REAL]

You gonna need a part 2 to this video because there’s more things they did wrong

[@burr6303]

I remember a JGOD video where he said “There is a slide cancel in this game. If you try to slide, you get cancelled. Immediately.”

[@coyley72]

My hate is: on Xbox there no way to turn off Crossplay. I believe it's an option on Playstation, and was a PS exclusive option!! I hate crossplay, or more specifically, controllers playing again keyboard & mouse players. There is such an inherent advantage to KB&M that it's completely unfair. I hope to jeebers that Xbox gets the option to turn off crossplay in MWIII

[@scottjs5207]

Just an FYI, Infected had 4-5 loadouts at its peak, however, they were map specific. They removed the ones people didn't like, namely the Lynx/M1014 and P890 only. I still don't understand why they haven't created a randomizer with a handful of constraints put in place to allow for potentially unlimited class possibilities. It would literally be a set and forget type of thing. As long as there are no bugs, it can work completely on its own without further support and would also give people a good reason to play simply to level up guns even before they've unlocked them. Launchers were also pretty trash, they really didn't feel useful to take down killstreaks, and they didn't do a whole lot of damage, (Javalin excluded but idle sway made target locking temperamental and it was almost useless to take down Killstreaks with how long it took to actually hit the streaks. My biggest gripes were the constant Nerfs moderately used or even rarely used weapons were getting. Listening to your weapon balancing patch note tests were 95% "Ok... but WHY?" There was absolutely no reason to buff the one shot marksmans, nor was there reason to Nerf the lethargic semi-autos. Another major issue I had was just how much of a wasted potential select fire was... yet again... The SCAR-H should've realistically been near identical to the G3, and any 4 shot rifles should've been a base of 3 shots with a handful of exceptions depending on recoil and fire rate, but they made it essentially worthless yet again. Reducing bullet velocity also made guns feel really inconsistent, I would've preferred it to be the same as MW19 or slightly higher and be more reliant on caliber and barrel length than weapon class.

[@jimmybones4299]

It's sad, at least three of these are absolute deal breakers. The refusal to take legitimate feedback and incorporate it was infuriating. Had so much hope for this game.

[@alexanderdavies1891]

It's insane that at this point so many AAA studios are basically just jokes and money presses that don't make good games at all. Half of the AAA studios release completely broken games that are just vehicles for mtx, wether they're single player or multiplayer games. It's so corporatized that nothing is about the game anymore.

[@kingdaniel8286]

They did everything wrong I’m so glad sledgehammer actually cook something rigth I just hope treyarch doesn’t disappoints

[@Jumperman12mac]

I knew you'd say that as your first. Like seriously, I've found myself not even modifying any of the perks since they're all attached to an package.

[@casaldana]

What's crazy to me is that we had a bug in the beta where you throw a lethal when exiting a vehicle and this bug is still present in the game today. I don't think they've even mentioned this bug. But it's just indicative of how little they cared about improving this game.

[@HEALPony]

Just looking back at this video does make me feel a bit sad that infinity ward just ignored the community that year, but im glad that sledgehammer is listening this time. also hearing the footstep part of the video, i sadly do not have that luxury when it comes to hearing and tracking footsteps as i am deaf in my left ear and partial hearing loss in my right, and im only using a hearing aid in my right ear as my "headphones" for video games as i dont want to damage and potentially lose my right ears hearing. trying to cherish and protect it at all costs. Tracking and hearing footsteps is not possible for me even in real life. fun.

[@snoopcodd]

41 minutes☠️

[@Latinblood59]

When you switch your perk packages in game, you will spawn with your previous package unless you reselect the class every time. It’s been like this for months and haven’t seen any one address it. SND main here.

[@mradamcshaw]

SBMM is the biggest problem for me. Playing casual and trying to improve over time just doesn't happen anymore. Everyone uses meta weapons and the game gets hard work and stale very fast. It's always been a thing but I remember in the original COD4 bouncing between being top or bottom of the team stats less frequently.

[@2023PerfectDark]

I stopped caring about improving because what's to improve when I'm already a veteran? I just reverse boost by sitting in the match because the game does not kick you if you get at least one kill. I can just die over and over while doing something else like making mods for a different game I get paid from. Then when I'm done or need a break, the lobbies are easy or more casual. You're still dealing with bunny Hoppers but because the connection is way better, they're easier to kill. Like that feeds into the conspiracy theory that SBMM will Nerf and punish you for being too good in a match in real time. All the problems you have in a sweaty SBMM lobby, magically disappears when you reverse boost into casual lobbies. And the players are somewhat still the same. why is that?

[@will_9910]

At least for me, I wouldn't say that's the biggest problem. With SBMM being as strong as it is. It completely punishes solo players like myself. Back then I could just hop on at any time of the day and just vibe out with whatever I wanted, but now, I'm constantly at a mental breakdown inches away from punching my monitor because the opposing team wants to snake with their taq 56 while I'm just trying to snipe on a casual game of TDM. This is not a CDL match nor ranked. It's so annoying, man. Dont even get me started on when that same enemy team just decides to spam gas grenades all game. Jesus Christ.

[@darkmatterg2472]

I love when ace makes these videos and the “what they did wrong” video is significantly longer than the “what they did well” video 😂

[@PuLseFPS]

Infinity ward needs to never touch a cod again

[@marty5300]

COD is the only game that punishes you for your playstyle or being good. Good player = sbmm putting you in 60+ ping sweaty matches prefer to rush? = take away ability to rush effectively prefer KBM? = ratchet up aim assist on controllers and on and on

[@d8l835]

Game was designed to prop up bad players and harm decent-good players. Look at all these points he brings up through that lense, and everything makes sense

[@lj5190]

It was designed to be as accessible to as many players as possible.

[@d8l835]

​@lj5190 11:42 and it failed horribly by catering to one side of the scale HEAVILY Did you even play the game? You aren't being honest and you know it

[@lj5190]

@@d8l835 MWII was the 4th best selling game last month. Nearly a year after release, it's still selling in the Top 5.

[@d8l835]

@@lj5190 and og cods sold more copies for less money on less platforms. Playerbases have NEVER come close to what og cods had, which is why they don't show that in game anymore. You aren't making the point you think you are

[@bort6414]

​@@lj5190And WZII congruent player count two months after launch was as low as the WZ player count near the end of Vanguard's life cycle. Your point?

[@chal7467]

As somebody who has put multiple days of play time into every cod since WaW, it is beyond baffling how the spawn systems seem to move backward every year

[@IAmSurfer]

“It takes very little skill to just hear a footstep and know immediately where that player is…instead of being able to read a mini map and deduce where a player might come from” say it again for the people in the back!!

[@SunlightSee]

Limiting perk packs to 5 kills me. I play very differently on shipment with an SMG than I do in Invasion with a sniper/taq56 than I do on rotating maps using an AR with a backup handgun OR a backup SMG. That limit of five has been a huge frustration. Especially for a new guy like me who doesn't have a really set and perfected style but likes to do a bit of everything depending on the map and my mood. though I go out of my way to avoid the negativity around CoD, I've never heard this criticism outside my own head, so thank you. Thanks again for not being unnecessarily negative. Its why you're one of two CoD KZbinrs I subscribe to.

[@righttwix4]

I really appreciate you throwing in the bit about the shadowban system, my gf got shadow banned 10+ times between March-July, 3 days to a Week she couldnt play, and she's not even a great player, with snappy aim or anything, but since she's a girl on CoD, who mainly played SnD or ranked, she'd get reported constantly. She took huge breaks, season long breaks sometimes, but she'd hop back on and get shadowed within a few hours. It really ruined this game for her. Hopefully they address this

[@SuicidalChocolateSK]

one thing i wanna add to the SBMM and Disbanding lobby section, is that ive been playing a lot of CS2, and having lobbies of varied skill levels, lobbys that stick together and dont disband, is so so fun and important to the game. The amount of games ive had where i have a rivalry, or even just goofing around with the same dudes game after game just adds so much to the game man.

[@davesturchcgi]

Having to get longshots on all gun classes was why I only got plat ARs and then didn't bother going past gold on all other weapon classes. Also I wish an old IW employee would come out and do an interview to answer the questions we have about how these decisions are made. Surprised no one has before.

[@hypno4430]

I feel like most of the maps are fine now, but the main problem with maps is that the ones we got at launch were some of the worst. Any time I see border, that Mexican town, or the cartel safehouse I just roll my eyes because these maps have some of the worst flow I've felt in a CoD game. Even farm 81 or whatever number it was is horrible. Though this is from the perspective of a Domination and Hardpoint player, so maybe they play well in TDM; all I know is they end up as a elbow to elbow slugfest with barely any ranged fighting outside of a few places overlooking no mans land. I don't mean to put down anyone's map preferences here, but I have never wanted to skip so many maps in previous CoDs. Also that weird strafe wobble when you move left and right; was that in 2019?

[@BT0WN]

The minimap changes (same as MW2019) is high on my list of frustrations

[@chancemadeit]

Both mw2 games had a gamebreaking bug/feature that they never fixed which would’ve made the games infinitely better 2009: OMA noobtubes 2022: UAV bug

[@Tenor_TV]

Kind of a minor thing but I hated how stingy they were with making Orion look better. It took months for them to buff the movement and to this day I don't think they made it any brighter. It should be on par with the new Haunting camo at the least.

[@Moue666]

No Specialist is the most criminal mistake they made.

[@reeseatkinson5796]

Sbmm in a nutshell: I have 5 sweaty losses in a row, they give me a bot lobby, the bots are getting pooed on so they get mad and leave and sweats fill their spot. In ONE match I’ve had 20 different teammates in ONE game.

[@camoflamer]

I'm not really a bundles guy at all but like, if you can let us preview the tracers.... why can't we preview the takedowns!?!?